Thanks @CharlesW I've been told the original keys would have been something other than Ivory anyway but I wanna still check out my options.
I think the legal Ivory might be ivorine, I personally find it doesn't stick for long either and ends up needing care after a while. My preference for this reason is to get wood but I'm unsure if I'm allowed to according to historic protected items in Aus however, if I can argue that overseas this happens I might be in for a chance.

Keep in mind this is in the United States. We don't have historic or heritage protected instruments. They routinely get trashed to humor some picayunish organist who thinks he can't play Bach except on a certain style of instrument.

I have noticed that some new organs have bone naturals rather than ivory. Whether this is a result of the lack of available ivory or because of cost, I don't know.

^^Bureaucracy at its finest.

I would prefer bone to wood, though either is acceptable.
My experience with wood is, depending, I suppose, on which wood, that it tends to wear down and sometimes becomes pitted or grooved. This doesn't happen with bone.

I know that I'm 'preaching to the choir' here, so don't really need to say this, but an organic material such as wood, bone, or ivory makes quite a difference in the bonding one experiences with the keys. Plastic and such are really dead to the touch, whereas organic keys have a feel of life to them that can often enliven one's playing; there is an intelligible excitement in touching the organic, living, substance.

@ClergetKubisz yes it sports only 2 manuals and no reeds and 8 stops in total and some very unusual incomplete pedal board shoved in after it was built! But it sings throughout the church and does exactly the job we want it to. Okay, so my organ is smaller than yours, let's not get our measuring tools out, I'm just glad we've still got one. Thanks for being so helpful! :P

@M. Jackson Osborn not sure if this tag will work, we have pretty good source of maple wood, yeah, my thing against plastic is that the chips are going to hurt way more when they start to happen, that stuff is lethal! Bone looks nice and I love looking at the grain of maple wood, you're right, organic is always superior. Do you really think bone sticks okay? With heat that high and dry we get a lot of issues with glues working, one time the road came apart and stuck to the wheels of people's cars cos it melted so badly. Regardless I think we have to restore it to whatever it is supposed to have if we do restore this part of the instrument, which is something I'm insisting on.

@francis pear wood? Like wood from a pear tree? This is going to sound so daggy but I had no idea pears grew above ground, (I think I thought they were like potatoes or something) so it sounds like I need to do some more research! Thanks for the hat tip.

The laws regarding the use of ivory, even from already deceased elephants, have recently gotten much stricter, so check that. I was recently involved in a project in which we were discussing the restoration of an old ivory keyboard, and it is quite challenging. Modern organs built in historic styles these days tend to use either wood or cow bone. I know of some that actually use mammoth ivory, which is evidently legal. There is more mammoth ivory lying around than one would think, although it's still expensive.

If legally obtained ivory is not possible (and I am certainly sensitive to poaching concerns), I would say cow bone would be the best option. I would leave the viable ivory intact, however.

@M.JacksonOsborn yes some sort of accident has occurred prior to my time. This instrument is so desperate for repair that it is almost worth getting a whole new one. The tracker action CONSTANTLY fails with rods crossing all over the place, some even look like they have been chewed on by my dog. I also think whoever installed the Ivory in the first place used extremely thin pieces you can actually see the grain of the wood through some of the pieces. In addition I have reason to believe that someone stood on the keys after leaning a ladder against the organ to repair the roof. (A couple of the finials came off that day too.) when I arrived the church complained that the organ always had cyphers... This was caused by some imbecile kicking a piece of the organ onto the rods of the pedals. It's an absolute joke the state it is in but I know this instrument is a little gem that is worth it. If we didn't use it we'd be using a Barry Morgan 70's synthesiser appliance so I'm very relieved we have this. I've gotta say the state of the organ when I first saw it really took me by surprise, it was even missing stops, so you'd have to open the casing to push out the stop you wanted. I've repaired organs that have come out of earthquakes in better condition than this one. It needs a lot of work. At the moment the organ is being held together with gaffa! It's really quite alarming!

Haha I dunno bout clever. More embarrassing! When I read pear tree I genuinely thought someone was pulling my leg!

The roads melt sometimes yeah, tyres would pop before they melted I reckon but tyres here are really good the bitumen kinda sucks so we got some French people in to fix it for us.

@doneil yes I am absolutely not a fan of Ivory this is why I wonder if we should scrap the lot and what organs historically use. Thanks for your suggestions, I'm adding them to the tally!

@AdamWood yes, we sing the 12 days of Christmas...
12 possums playing
11 kangas hopping
10 wombats digging
9 crocs are swimming
8 dingos dancing
7 emus laying
6 platypuses
5 kangaroos
4 lyrebirds
3 pink galahs
2 snakes on ski's
And a kookaburra in a gum tree...

But I looked up the words and can totally understand that pears grow on trees now. Even got a lovely picture to remind me! Hahaha for a minute there I thought you were taking the piss but it is totally obvious in the song and regularly sung too no wonder people think I'm a dingbat!

There is another version we used to sing at school too the only thing I remember was 5 BBQ's... Very bogan. Never sang the partridge one before. Got no idea what a partridge even is. Mind you, I never understood how snakes could use ski's without having feet to clip into them!

We probably don't have enough information to make legitimate recommendations for you as to how to proceed..

But speaking personally, I have a strong preference for wood keys. They just feel "right" to me.

I have been listening to some 2010 or so recordings by Siegfried Franke at St. Paul's Cathedral in Melbourne. Fine instrument. Also the Pastór de Lasala recordings on the 1898 Norman & Beard organ at St Patrick's Catholic Cathedral, Parramatta, NSW, Australia sound pretty good. So there are some great organs in Australia that also seem to survive the weather. It sounds like your instrument has been poorly maintained and perhaps even abused.

another option is boxwood

I looked on YouTube and now know who Barry Morgan is. Ethel Smith on steroids. Maybe a little Liberace thrown in. Good grief! LOL.

@BGP
That's really useful thanks! Cool instruments to build! No ridicule permitted on this thread, I think you're cool. Do you know if any people try to get rid of their intact Ivory pieces as well as broken pieces?

I guess the reason why I'm leaning towards wood is because of the shape and texture of the sharps and flats which are made with a wood surface. I think wood breaths more and expands more naturally at the same rate as other wooden surfaces.

@CharlesW I really like Barry Morgan, he is a great supporter of young organists around the country, and well, maybe our taste in music slightly differs but I have to admit he knows a heck of a lot of stuff including how to be that funny quirky character with musical taste that a few share. His website for his shop is just filled with his mirth.

A couple of people PM'd me about our weather? Melbourne city will hail, be 30 degrees Celsius followed by 8 degrees, really sunny, rain, thunder, londonesque cloud, hot rain, windy, still and all in the same day and on any day in any season. It's very normal and not generally a problem though some instruments of certain wood without humidity regulators do feel the toll especially the organs that are designed for other climate or have been shunted around more than your aunties slippers. More rural areas however have more extreme temperatures and more extreme storms, flooding and bushfires etc. we don't get many cyclones or hurricanes or anything terrifying like that, we admire how people get through those devastations with such dignity. We think your weather is strange too. Our best organs and best buildings are the result of the gold rush either that or I have a bias towards a particular era. (Which is highly likely.)
How this affects an organist?
If using public transport during a hot patch of day the rails might have expanded and then multiple cancellations are called.
Hail stones might damage the church roof.
Possums love to hide from the rain inside pipe organs.
When preparing for multiple masses in the day (let's say dawn, day and evening) you'll need to have an umbrella, a jumper, a short sleeve top and a wide brimmed hat handy (easily placed in the boot of a car.)
A bottle of glue is handy because in summer anything glued is prone to needing reapplication of something sticky.
A blowtorch is also handy because you can melt shellac from where wooden keys have expanded more than plastic causing the plastic to come off.
Be prepared to tune organ and still have an out of tune organ the next day because the temperature and humidity changed 4-5 times overnight.
Enjoy the variety? Yeah I do, I love it!

jesearle- Thanks, I didn't really expect to be ridiculed, but some people really, really hate bagpipes: myself... I'm a drone head, bagpipes, hurdy gurdys and Byzantine Chant are awesome as far as I'm concerned.
Basically If your lucky enough to own a vintage instrument you don't want to mess with anything that doesn't need fixing, it's also expensive to have mounts turned off and replaced. I'm not sure what people are doing, I do know a pipe maker and can ask next time I see him if you like? The changes in the law are problem for repair of broken parts as well. The maker I know is a big fan of moose antler... It's similar and beautiful but it really doesn't look like ivory, it has grey and purple patterns swirled throughout the material.

Those who want to travel to Canada or Scotland to compete are buying or borrowing ivory free instruments. I'm not up on all the laws as it's not an issue for me, there's more information here if your interested http://www.thebagpipeplace.com/bagpipes-ivory/ I fail to see how these newer laws are going to make one iota of difference when it comes to protecting elephants.

Anyway, yeah I think wood is probably your best bet, with less delamination due to expansion/contraction, provided it complies with your historic conservation requirements.

Well, it's not just customs agents: it's nanny-states in general, but that's not the topic of this thread.

@BGP Byzantine chant :)

@Jesearle: I'm glad you've got an organ as well, especially if it sports real pipes! The organ at the church where I was is a 3 manual Wicks with 40 speaking stops. I'm moving to a new school next year, and the organ there is a 2 manual Schantz, maintained by the famous Goulding and Wood company in nearby Indianapolis. Keep playing, no matter how many manuals you've got! (I once played a one manual tracker organ in Carmel, Indiana, which aside from some tuning issues sounded very good).